Understanding and Evaluating Poetry
The questions to ask of any poem: speaker, audience, occasion, setting, purpose, theme, and more.
- 1. Who is the speaker? What kind of person is the speaker?
- 2. Is there an identifiable audience for the speaker? What can we know about it (her, him, or them)?
- 3. What is the occasion?
- 4. What is the setting in time (hour, season, century, and so on)?
- 5. What is the setting place (indoors or out, city or country, land or sea, region, nation, hemisphere)?
- 6. What is the central purpose of the poem?
- 7. State the central idea or theme of the poem in a sentence.
- 8.
- a. Outline the poem so as to show its structure and development, or
- b. Summarize the events of the poem.
- 9. Paraphrase the poem.
- 10. Discuss the diction of the poem. Point out words that are particularly well chosen and explain why.
- 11. Discuss the imagery of the poem. What kinds of imagery are used? Is there a structure of imagery?
- 12. Point out examples of metaphor, simile, personification, and metonymy, and explain their appropriateness.
- 13. Point out and explain any symbols. If the poem is allegorical, explain the allegory.
- 14. Point out and explain examples of paradox, overstatement, understatement, and irony. What is their function?
- 15. Point out and explain any allusions. What is their function?
- 16. What is the tone of the poem? How is it achieved?
- 17. Point out significant examples of sound repetition and explain their function.
- 18.
- a. What is the meter of the poem?
- b. Copy the poem and mark its scansion.
- 19. Describe the form or pattern of the poem.
- 20. Criticize and evaluate the poem.